Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-05-22
MANSION.
An Old Time Residence which Has Shell
tered Many Great Men.
pdsdaaee Of DC SUNDAY Register.

Al OA1
tered Many Great Men.
Susctol 6rrcsv6sdeAee of ne Sunday Register.
FRANKFORT, KY, May 20.
The State of Kentucky, like New York
and Pennsylvania and eight other States
in the Union, Owls and furnishes a dwell
ing for her Governors at the seat Of the
government. This executive mansion, as
it is called, is very old and costly to main
tain, but there seems to be no disposition
on the part of the Legislature or people to
repeal the law or withhold the necessary
appropriations Tor repairs or househola
outft' which is complete and elegant IN all
its appointments and renewed every iour
wears with each change of admlnlstlon.
III rs thought the strongest reason for TINS
disinelination to innovation lies In the
very nature of thu Kentuckian's local at
tachments, pride of ancestry and venera-
tion for tradition. custom and historic rel
les of a followed past The landmark
under review is so closely interviewer with
the history of the state that TO destroy the
character of the one would become in the
minds of the natives a self despoiation OF
a glory Of the other, which even o Vandal
would pause to execute. Marshall, one OF
the earliest historians of the State. said
that measures were taken in 1892 TO
erect a house for the residence of the Gov
ernor." but il was not until about lSO2
that the present building was finished.
Though it is a very unpretentiOus and even
ordinary two story brick residence for these
DAYS, at that period. when the popula'
ton of Kentucky only numbered 23O,9 $50,
il was regarded the handsomest and
most spacious home west of the Allegheny
mountains. Governor Metcalf, who be
came governor in 1873 under the sobrlque,
of ''StOne Hammer" laid the stone foun'
dation, aud the father of Governor Letchel
nut up the brick work. 1t is said that
Governor Letcher himself, as, a boy help
ing his father in his trade, predicted to ms
parent, when they we're together upon the
walls, that he would run for governor and
live 10 the mansion they were building
prediction he verified forty years afterward.
The first occupant of the mansion was
Gorernor James Garrard, who succeeded
Isaac ,nelby, the first governor OF the
state. He, as those in Office after him
have non considered it the Verl'
table Kentucky home" where the dis
pensatiOn of a governors hospitality has
made use of the name as q theme worthy
the poet. painter and mOdelist. Besides
| entertaining all distinguished people %hC
visited the capital, il has ever been the
custom of the governors to give a series o.
brilliant levees and receptions each season,
Mt which the doors are thrown open to oil
alike without distinction Of class Except,
ing colored people, who have never ven
tured their presence on these occaslonsl
| Not long after the mansion was erected,
| Aaron Burr came TO Frankfort and spent
a part OF his visit as the governors
guest. He was subsequently arrested
for conducting his conspiracy III this
city, and. brought to trial and acquitted Ill
Richmond, Va. LOuis Philippe, previous
to becoming King of France, and while
travelling in the United States as an eNlle
from has country; Gen. Lafayette, IN 1924;
| Presidents Monroe and Gen. Jackson, who
were making a tour OF the country on
horseback: Count de Bertrand, one OF
| NapoIeon's Generals, who followed him to
| St Helena and there wrote the Memoirs
of the Campaigns of Egypt and Syria. as
dictated by Napoleon; Presidents Harrison
and Taylor; Gems. Santa Anna and Al
monte. who were prisoners Of war IN 1857,
after the battle of San Jacinto, and en-
route to Washington City, not to mention
Henry CLAY, John j. Crittenden, Senator
Geo. Vest, Governors b. Gratz Brown, L. L.
| Crittenden. OF Missouri, Francisand Mont
pomery Blair, aud hundreds of other Illus
trious Kentuckians, found shelter and en-
| tertainment beneath the roof OF this eXecu-
tive mansion. If the walls Of the parlors
of the parlors and study were an audiphone
they could repeat to attentive ears oil
TODAY the interesting history OF past
assemblages of beauty, wit and gallantry,
of loves inception, crowned with happiness
and prosperity, of fearful ~pleadings for a
meaciful penstrOke to spare the disgrace o.
a felon or a life doomed to the gall0ws,
and, above all the secret plans ot cabinet
and field in which, through the various
state, national and political changes and
crises of war, the country has need OF tax
ipy into its confidence the services OF the
governors of Kentucky, Amos kendrll,
William T. larry, Clay, CrIttendenl,
Marshall, Breckenridge, Carlisle, Beck
AA-y% l N